With this being Andrew's first time on the big track the plan was to have fun and gain a lot of experience. Andrew did that and more!

Saturday morning brought about many challenges. We needed to borrow and change gearing, stand in the long registration line (note to self: pre-register), and work on the misaligned fairings. Talk about not being prepared. Luckily, Andrew was in group 8, the last practice group. We got the bike finished in time and Andrew made the first practice.

The 2 morning practice sessions went well with no incidents. Andrew spent his laps wisely learning the track and getting comfortable with the much higher speed than normal on a kart track. Andrew's best time was a 1:37.938 and he was happy with that for his first big track event. After the last practice we had an hour lunch before the races started and Andrew was in the first race.

It was time to race and Andrew went out for the warm up lap, a little nervous and very excited. He gridded on the second row in 5th. Andrew got a good start and by the end of lap 1 he was in 4th behind Jason Aguilar, Aaron Villasenor, and Ben Truslow. Aguilar, with a big gap, on lap 2 suffered a mechanical and the rest of the riders moved up a position. This put Andrew in 3rd with a decent gap back to 4th. On the last lap Truslow closed to within half a second on Villasenor, but couldn't get any closer and Andrew brought it home in 3rd with a best time of 1:36.320. Not bad for his first big track race!

The rest of the day would be relaxing and watching other races until we realized our gearing was wrong. Instead of a 15 tooth front we had a 16 tooth front. With Andrew 2 seconds off the pace we realized that would really help, so back to work changing the gearing

Easter Sunday brought about a calmer day as we were ready from the start. The nerves were gone and Andrew was ready to get on with racing. By the end of practice he had done a 1:35.317 showing that the gearing and his comfort on the new track were better.

It was race time again and Andrew was gridded on the front row in 3rd. A good start and he could be in the hunt for a podium again. The green flag flew and they were off…except for Andrew who stalled it. One of the grid marshals gave Andrew a push and he was off in 5th place. He ran hard laps trying to make up as much ground as possible and by lap 2 he had caught and passed Sean Heeney. Meanwhile it was Aguilar leading the pack showing his mechanical issues from Saturday were solved. Villasenor was right on his wheel looking for a way around with Truslow about 10 seconds off the leaders. On the last lap Villasenor ran the fastest lap of the race drafting Aguilar to the line and just missing the win by .079 seconds. Truslow held on to 3rd with Andrew 4th only 16 seconds back from the leaders, with a best lap of 1:34.966.

So at the end of the weekend Andrew had a bunch of fun and gained a HUGE amount of big track experience.

Andrew would like to congratulate his friends: Jason Aguilar, Aaron Villasenor, and Ben Truslow on their outstanding performance during the weekend.